Gyalsey_Laglen_v2_24092014_e-book

The idea that “If I alone survive, then let them suffer” would not work. It is
a karmic program that brings negative fruit: bad karma, bad results and finally
remaining in samsara, suffering endlessly.
I was giving a talk in Europe and one of my students asked me, “If I take care
of others, who will take care of me” He was starting to worry about himself. It
is an interesting question. But, actually the best way to take care of you yourself,
is to take care of others. Due to ignorance, we have not managed to do it or even
accept this approach. We only want to take care of ourselves. This is how we
develop our ego, and how we survive in a materialistic way. But that is not the
way we should be leading our lives in terms of spiritual practice.
In the Bodhicittacharyavatara*, it says, “The Buddhas became Buddhas by
taking care of others.” That is clearly how it is and this hints that taking care of
others is also the best way of taking care of you yourself. It is the way of becoming
a Buddha. Bodhicitta is the mind of enlightenment – the mind interested in
enlightenment. This is what we need.
༡༡༽ སྡུག་བསྔལ་མ་ལུས་བདག་བདེ་འདོད་ལས་བྱུང་།།
རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་གཞན་ཕན་སེམས་ལས་འཁྲུངས།།
(11)
དེ་ཕྱིར་བདག་བདེ་གཞན་གི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་དག།
ཡང་དག་བརྗེ་བ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།
All of our sufferings, without an exception,
derive from the wish to please but ourselves;
while the thoughts and the actions that benefit
others conceive and give birth to supreme Buddha-hood.
Thus in exchange for our selfish desires
and shameful neglect of our suffering kin,
replace thoughts of self with concern for others -
the Sons of the Buddha all practise this Way.
40